cervical

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from New Latin cervīcālis (“of the neck”),^[2][3][4] from Latin cervīx (“neck”), with the suffix -ālis;^[2][5][6] the OED compares cervīcal (“pillow, bolster”).^[3][7] Etymonline derives it from French cervical, and Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the ODE allow either the French or the Latin word as the source.^{[8][7][9][10]} Etymonline traces cervīx to Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“horn; head”),^[8][11] while Klein thinks its first part is probably related to cerebrum (“brain”) and its second to vinciō (“to bind”), so that the neck is "that which binds the head".^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or belonging to the neck: 1681, in the Table of Hard Words in Samuel Pordage's translation of Thomas Willis.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "belonging to the neck", with a quotation on the cervical arteries.^[13] As the anatomical noun cervix came to be used of other neck-like parts, especially the neck of the womb,^[8] the adjective followed: Etymonline dates the sense "of the neck of the womb" to 1832,^[8] the OED to 1860,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford to the mid 19th century.^[9] Today the womb sense is the common one in phrases such as cervical smear and cervical cancer, while cervical vertebra and cervical spine keep the older sense.^[9][4] As a noun, a cervical nerve or vertebra, it is recorded from 1767.^[3]

Timeline

• 1681 – of the neck.^[3][2]
• 1755 – Johnson's Dictionary: "belonging to the neck".^[13]
• 1767 – noun, a cervical nerve or vertebra.^[3]
• 1832 – of the neck of the womb.^[8]
• 1860 – of the cervix of the womb (the OED's first record).^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the neck: She wore a soft collar for a cervical injury.^[4][2][3]
2. Of or relating to a cervix, especially the neck of the uterus: a cervical screening test.^[4][2][3]

Noun

1. A cervical vertebra, nerve or artery.^[2][3]

Word family

• cervical cap
• cervical plexus

Related words

• cervix
• cerebrum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.